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They say that the gad-fly finds lodgement with cattle close by the ear, as
does the tick with dogs ; so also the flatterer takes hold of ambitious
men's ears with his words of praise, and once settled there, he is hard to
dislodge. Wherefore in this matter especially it is necessary to keep the
judgement awake and on the alert, to see whether the praise is for the
action or for the man. It is for the action if they praise us in absence
rather than in our presence ; also if they, too, cherish the same desires
and
[p. 301]
aspirations themselves and praise not us alone but
all persons for like conduct; also if they are not found doing and saying
now this and now the opposite ; but, chief of all, if we ourselves know that
we feel no regret for those actions for which we are praised, no feeling of
shame and no wish that we had said or done the opposite. For if our own
conscience protests and refuses to accept the praise, then it is not
affected or touched, and is proof against assault by the flatterer. Yet, in
some way that passes my knowledge, most people have no patience with efforts
to console them in their misfortunes, but are more influenced by those who
commiserate and condole with them ; and whenever these same people are
guilty of mistakes and blunders, the man who by chiding and blaming implants
the sting of repentance is taken to be an enemy and an accuser, whereas they
welcome the man who praises and extols what they have done, and regard him
as kindly and friendly. Now those who unthinkingly praise and join in
applauding an act or a saying, or anything offered by another, whether he be
in earnest or in jest, are harmful only for the moment and for the matter at
hand; but those who with their praises pierce to the man's character, and
indeed even touch his habit of mind with their flattery, are doing the very
thing that servants do who steal not from the heap 1 but from the seed-corn.
For, since the disposition and character are the seed from which actions
spring, such persons are thus perverting the very first principle and
fountain-head of living, inasmuch as they are investing vice with the names
that belong to
[p. 303]
virtue. Amid factions and wars, Thucydides 2 says,
‘they changed the commonly accepted meaning of words when applied
to deeds as they thought proper. Reckless daring came to be regarded as
devoted courage, watchful waiting as specious cowardice, moderation as a
craven's pretext, a keen understanding for everything as want of energy
to undertake anything.’ And so in attempts at flattery we should
be observant and on our guard against prodigality being called ‘
liberality,’ cowardice ‘self-preservation,’
impulsiveness ‘quickness,’ stinginess ‘
frugality,’ the amorous man ‘companionable and
amiable,’ the irascible and overbearing ‘spirited,’
the insignificant and meek ‘kindly.’ So Plato 3 somewhere says
that the lover, being a flatterer of his beloved, calls one with a snub nose
‘fetching,’ one with a hooked nose ‘kingly,’
dark persons ‘manly,’ and fair persons ‘children of the
gods’ ; while ‘honey-hued’ is purely the creation
of a lover who calls sallowness by this endearing term, and cheerfully puts
up with it. And yet an ugly man who is made to believe that he is handsome,
or a short man that he is tall, is not for long a party to the deception,
and the injury that he suffers is slight and not irremediable. But as for
the praise which accustoms a man to treat vices as virtues, so that he feels
not disgusted with them but delighted, which also takes away all shame for
his errors—this is the sort that brought afflictions upon the people of
Sicily, by calling the savage cruelty of Dionysius and of Phalaris ‘
hatred of wickedness’ ; this it is that ruined Egypt, 4 by giving
to Ptolemy's effeminacy, his religious mania, his hallelujahs, his clashing
of cymbals, the name of
[p. 305]
‘piety’ and ‘devotion to the gods’ ; this it
is that all but subverted and destroyed the character of the Romans in those
days, by trying to extenuate Antony's 5 luxuriousness, his excesses and
ostentatious displays, as ‘blithe and kind-hearted actions due to his
generous treatment at the hands of Power and Fortune.’ What else
was it that fastened the mouthpiece and flute upon Ptolemy 6 ? What else set
a tragic stage for Nero, and invested him with mask and buskins ? Was it not
the praise of his flatterers ? And is not almost any king called an Apollo
if he can hum a tune, and a Dionysus if he gets drunk, and a Heracles if he
can wrestle ? And is he not delighted, and thus led on into all kinds of
disgrace by the flattery ?